Case Study Reports: Non-Formal Cultural Participation and Socialisation in Croatia
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Case Study Reports: Non-formal Cultural Participation and Socialisation in Croatia Rašeljka Krnić, Dino Vukušić Institut Drustvenih Znanosti Ivo Pilar PROJECT TITLE CULTURAL HERITAGE AND IDENTITIES OF EUROPE’S FUTURE ACRONYM CHIEF WEBSITE http://chiefprojecteu.com FUNDER EUROPEAN UNION PROGRAMME HORIZON 2020 RESEARCH AND INNOVATION PROGRAMME TOPIC CULT-COOP-03-2017 CULTURAL LITERACY OF YOUNG GENERATIONS IN EUROPE GRANT AGREEMENT 770464 COORDINATOR ASTON UNIVERSITY, UK START DATE 1 MAY 2018 DURATION 3.5 YEARS PROJECT PARTNERS INSTITUTION COUNTRY ABBREVIATION ASTON UNIVERSITY UK ASTON U CAUCASUS RESEARCH RESOURCE CENTERS GEORGIA CRRC CULTURE COVENTRY UK CULTURE COV DAUGAVPILS UNIVERSITATE LATVIA DU HAMBURG UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES GERMANY HAW HAMBUR INSTITUT DRUSTVENIH ZNANOSTI IVO PILAR CROATIA PILAR MIMAR SINAN FINE ARTS UNIVERSITY TURKEY MSGSU THE SAVITRIBAI PHULE PUNE UNIVERSITY INDIA SPPU UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA SPAIN UPF UNIVERSITY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE UK UoGLOS UNIVERZITA KOMENSKEHO V BRATISLAVE SLOVAKIA UKBA DOCUMENT CONTROL SHEET TITLE OF DOCUMENT CASE STUDY REPORTS: NON-FORMAL CULTURAL PARTICIPATION AND SOCIALISATION IN CROATIA AUTHOR(S) RAŠELJKA KRNIĆ, DINO VUKUŠIĆ INSTITUTION INSTITUT DRUSTVENIH ZNANOSTI IVO PILAR WORK PACKAGE NAME QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN NON-FORMAL EDUCATION SETTINGS WORK PACKAGE NO. WP4 DELIVERABLE TITLE CASE STUDY REPORTS: NON-FORMAL CULTURAL PARTICIPATION AND SOCIALISATION DELIVERABLE NO. D4.1 DISSEMINATION LEVEL PUBLIC DATE 08 MARCH 2020 VERSION 1.0 DOCUMENT HISTORY VERSION DATE COMMENTS MODIFIED BY This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement 770464. Disclaimer: This report reflects the Author’s view. The European Commission Research Executive Agency is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. 1. Executive summary Ethnographic research on the Centre for Peace Studies and Futsal Dinamo portrays two cases of the social activation of youth in Croatia in the context of two different organisations, both of which are defined by various aspects of non-formal education. Within both researched phenomena, the focus is on youth involved in particular social issues characterised by various circuits of motivations behind their actions; through development, the organisations themselves have reached the level of polyvalent forms of action. Built on different foundations, each organisation has used its work to highlight the existence of a “critical mass” among youth in Croatia, thus also offering a framework within which to manifest the various opinions and social demands of youth. Our selection of sites for ethnographic research was directed by a few criteria. The first, basic criterion in decision-making was the cooperation of youth and a degree of recognition of the site in the urban or national context. We endeavoured to choose sites that are as divergent as possible to establish a broad interpretative framework within the analysis, as informal education and its implications can reach into various spheres of society. 2. Introduction The Centre for Peace Studies (CMS) and Futsal Dinamo futsal club, seemingly heterogeneous phenomena at first glance, fall under the broader corpus of examples of youth activation. Within both researched phenomena, the focus is placed on youth involved in particular social issues characterised by various circuits of motivations behind their actions; through development, the organisations themselves have reached the level of polyvalent forms of action. Built on different foundations, each organisation has used its work to highlight the existence of a “critical mass” among youth in Croatia, thus also offering a framework within which to manifest the various opinions and social demands of youth. Through their actions, which imply including youth and inspiring them to act towards social change, both the Centre for Peace Studies and Futsal Dinamo contribute to the development of non-formal education in Croatia, which has played and still plays a very important role in the creation and development of various aspects of civil society. 32 3. Methods 3.1. Selection of non-formal education settings Our selection of sites for ethnographic research was directed by a few criteria. The first, basic criterion in decision-making was the cooperation of youth and a degree of recognition of the site in the urban or national context. We endeavoured to choose sites that are as divergent as possible so as to establish a broad interpretative framework within the analysis, as informal education and its implications can reach into various spheres of society. Also, led by the number of young people involved in each individual site, we focused equally on the existence of various forms of informally organised education (the Peace Academy, youth futsal school, work with the youngest Futsal Dinamo supporters, etc.). Furthermore, in addition to the aforementioned similarities, our choice was also partly conditioned by differences between them; the Centre for Peace Studies draws youth interested in action on including particular marginalised social groups (migrants), while Futsal Dinamo bases its action on the establishment of a democratic decision-making model within a sports club (one member = one vote). It is important to emphasise that the desire to democratise decision-making processes in sport and make sports more transparent in general in Croatia arises from the fact that professional sports clubs are still logistically and financially strongly influenced and controlled by national and/or local political figures. Numerous clubs frequently register as citizen’s associations, which results in tax benefits; however, on the other hand, they do not respect the laws regulating the work of associations, which require public access to transparent financial information and the holding of yearly assemblies. This contrast between sport and sporting audiences (as well as supporter subculture) as compared to – conditionally speaking – liberal and inclusive youth opens a broad spectrum of research possibilities, not only into informal education but into various perceptions of culture, identity, and relationships towards others by the actors in our ethnography. 3.2. Data Collection Research carried out at the Centre for Peace Studies was performed using the participatory observation method, including detailed field notes and semi-structured interviews during the final period of field research. Initial contact with the organisation took place during February, when a researcher and the project leader went to a meeting at CMS, where they spoke with the volunteer programme manager. At this point, a follow-up meeting was arranged, which was held on 4 March 2019 at CMS during a monthly volunteer meeting. Between then and 15 June 2019, the researcher attended six volunteer meetings. Of a total of fifteen field diary entries, six are related to the volunteer meetings; the remainder relate to time spent with a group of young volunteers at volunteer activities, as well as in informal social encounters. Fieldwork lasted from 4 March to 1 July 2019, with roughly 100 hours of participatory observation. Nine 33 interviews were recorded and transcribed – seven with young volunteers and two with experts. The shortest interview lasted 17 minutes, while the longest lasted 1 hour and 6 minutes. Three interviews were carried out at CMS offices, three in a park, and one in a café. Ethnographic research on Futsal Dinamo futsal club was carried out during the 2018/2019 season. Research began 6 October 2018 and concluded 10 May 2019, when Futsal Dinamo played its last match in the season. The participatory observation method included thirteen Futsal Dinamo home matches, as well as three other events not directly tied to matches – these were a music event, an art exhibition, and the club’s yearly assembly. Observation was carried out at home matches, as the Bad Blue Boys1 group had decided not to organise trips to away matches. There are several potential reasons for this decision, some of which are related to increased police repression of Bad Blue Boys when Futsal Dinamo was founded. The group was also of the opinion that, in an already difficult situation, it would be best to avoid additional “bans”; the futsal league itself is free of the “concept” of away match supporters, as the clubs are frequently from small towns and have no organised ultras groups. A total of 25 field diary entries were recorded, as the researcher frequently spent time with Futsal Dinamo supporters in informal situations outside of the context of field research. The researcher has also been a member of Futsal Dinamo since it was founded, however he had no contact with the club management until the outset of research. From the very beginning of the research, researcher position was specific since he was a regular visitor to Futsal Dinamo matches until the beginning of the research and now found himself researching a well-known environment. In some other circumstances during the research of fan subculture, such a position could be an obstacle for gaining trust from the group, but in this case it was an advantage since the members of the fan subculture also form the club's administration. Using the snowball method, based on the researcher’s acquaintance with people close to the club and in the Bad Blue Boys supporter group, the researcher intensified contacts with volunteers and the club’s management. At the end of field research, a total